Where did August go?

I was not playing games all month ~ honest !! In fact I have been working away silently in the background on Stage 1 ~ Design.

A lot of this was actually writing down a lot of ideas on the game design, as this helps me cement the process together much more firmly.  So with regard to the actual game design itself ~ I am spot on target for now.

Stage 2 ~ Planning.  This is already throwing up…

Hello all and welcome back to another piece of my recurring puzzle to discover Magic design. Each one of these is my attempt to look at an aspect of the game I love - high profile or obscure - and really celebrate things I find great.

This installment will touch on Blade of the Sixth Pride, the template for a Limited mainstay.

Glimpsing the Future of White Weenie

It would not surprise me if the readership might look at Blade of the Sixth Pride and wonder why I deem worthy of a 700+ word “case study” and I would be inclined to say that Past Ryan might agree. This humble 3/1 doesn’t seem all that important, but I think it stands as a mold for the modern White 2-drops.

The story behind how we got Blade of the Sixth Pride (or at least my understanding for listening @markrosewater​ on “Drive to Work”) comes from a want to do something special with the futureshifted frames in Future Sight. Mark’s goal was to make vanilla creatures eye-catching and at some point the idea to make them full art took shape, from that we got a common full art vanilla creature in each color (the others being Blind Phantasm, Fomori Nomad, Mass of Ghouls and Nessian Courser).

But in Blade of the Sixth Pride - I’m going to use “BotSP” - we got the first 3/1 for 2cmc in White and second in the game’s history. And I think that distinction coupled with the fact that it was a common, set a new standard for what the archetype of White Weenie could look like.

Playing with Keywords

It would be a few years before Magic began to play with the 3/1 for 1W template, coming in Mirrodin Besieged and two years later in Gatecrash we began to keywords being added and shifting the rarity if needed. This is where I became aware of this templating and really became attached to it.

This felt like the White Grizzly Bear template the more I played with it, where as Green creatures were solid with“square” stats, White was more aggressive. This came out in the mechanics given to the first two outings, Battle cry and Battalion - two keywords that wanted you attacking your opponent.

Working on Midrange

The next time we’d see the BotSP template used was one year after Gatecrash in Born of the Gods and Journey Into Nyx. My earlier praise of the starting common rarity grew from the versatility it offered over something like Savannah Lions as this time rarity was pushed for Spirit of the Labyrinth, allowing it to exist in a more midrange space.

What I also love is that Wizards still showcased the basic form with Oreskos Swiftclaw in the next set, further opening up the roster of 3/1s and giving the players a view of the possibilities that “White Grizzly” had.

The Special Place in the Game

By the time we finished Tarkir block, we were given two more uses of BotSP’s body with Wandering Champion and Dromoka Warrior. This signaled in my mind  the trajectory Magic design really wants White Weenies to play in. Did either of these see much to any Constructed play? No, but I would lying if I said I didn’t draft at least a playset of Dromoka Warriors during the Tarkir Standard.

It’s just such a nice body that begs to attack and block, especially if you can give it First Strike or Menace!

The Grizzly Standard

And now we reach the most recent dips into my favorite full art kitty in Devilthorn Fox and Kor Castigator. Both are still common and both play pretty much as vanilla creatures most of the time. But I am happy that for the third straight year the BotSP has found a place in Limited strategies.

Thank you to the readers, I hope I educated and entertained again. Do you agree with my analysis of Blade of the Sixth Pride? Do you think I am over-hyping this bulk common’s importance?